The lead voice of AR Rahman’s recently-released ’99 Songs’, Shashwat Singh on the teachings he learnt from the maestro
When AR Rahman needed to examine his voice out, nervousness obtained the higher of Shashwat Singh and he messed it up.
The maestro requested him to attempt once more. This time, his rendition of ‘You Raise Me Up’ received him appreciation, and a name from Rahman’s workplace to report ‘Wat Wat’ for the Hindi movie Tamasha (2015) a month later.
Also Read | Get ‘First Day First Show’, our weekly publication from the world of cinema, in your inbox. You can subscribe for free here
After Tamasha, Shashwat sang ‘Sarsariya’, within the 2016 Hrithik Roshan-starrer Mohenja Daro and ‘Ruby Ruby’ for Sanju in 2018 – all Rahman’s compositions
Five years after Tamasha, Shashwat’s 5 tracks from the recently-released Hindi movie 99 Songs, are making waves. The movie (dubbed in Telugu and Tamil) is produced and co-written by Rahman. “Amid so many amazing singers out there, I feel honoured and privileged that AR sir decided to go with my voice for this movie,” says Shashwat, who’s a product of Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, Chennai.
Speaking of anchoring nearly your complete album for the primary time in 99 Songs, Shashwat says, “There is a huge difference between singing one number and doing an entire track. You know you are the voice of the lead actor, and you have to know the story to understand the character. Sometimes you are privileged to get the video clip from the film and observe the actor’s expression while singing, which makes it easier for you to emote.”
A musical romance like 99 Songs might be compelling and difficult for any singer to discover the vary it calls for. There’s a haunting, soulful, feisty and religious high quality to every of the songs and Shashwat adapts to the temper of every one properly — one second he’s a balladeer and the subsequent, he groves with a rock quantity to the western orchestration and as seamlessly, strikes on to render a quantity to the Indian conventional beat.
Music was not Shashwat’s first selection for a profession, he admits. After an ACL- rupture dashed his goals to hitch the Indian Army, he interned in sound engineering underneath Nitin Joshi in Pune however quickly realised he didn’t wish to be “a technical guy inside a studio”.
A suggestion from his sister, Bollywood actor Nidhi Singh, to provide it a shot at Rahman’s institute introduced him to Chennai. “I had never been to Chennai, it was a new experience for me. I was this small-town guy with no exposure, and at the music school I had these instruments in front of me and I started exploring with wonder. I enrolled for Western classical music, which helped me understand my voice. The intention was never to be spotted by AR Rahman, I was just a dedicated schoolboy who was trying to learn different things and exploring different instruments,” he says.
Recalling that being mentored by Rahman formed his musical profession, Shashwat says, “There is so much I learnt from him, He talks in spurts, it could be anything, sometimes it is a philosophical thought that’s on his mind at that moment.”
He provides, “I have seen AR sir in different forms — spiritual, musical, as a performer on stage — in every form he is teaching you a craft, and in-depth knowledge. He once asked me what runs in my mind before I go into the studio to record a song. I said, ‘lyrics, the context and my expression and the technical bits…’ he said one is supposed to have all that in mind anyway, but my voice should heal the listener. Till today I remember his words before recording a song.”
Shashwat sang for Pritam, toured with Arijit Singh, sang in Telugu (‘Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi’ in Bhale Manchi Roju), Tamil (‘Oru Nila’ in K3), Malayalam (’Oh Thirayukayano’ in Madhura Naranga) and Bengali (‘Tui Chara’ in Love Story). He finds Malayalam the simplest of the South Indian languages. “I have a certain knack for sounds. Even when I was untrained in any form of music, I would play the guitar and the keyboard and associate everything to the sound, nothing with theory. I realised I had a natural understanding of harmonies.”
This love for harmonies ultimately led him to Rahman’s most formidable undertaking, NAFS — a band of 10 college students from his institute who would specialize in concord, sans devices, which was helmed by the US-based musician Arjun Chandy.
“That training helped me later in making my independent music,” says Shashwat who launched 4 singles final yr with extra within the pipeline this yr. Agreeing that the impartial music scene in India has by no means been this good, he calls it probably the most thrilling time for indie artists. “Not just Mumbai, you see indie musicians coming up with videos from even small places of the country, which is amazing.”
